ovVvo

Iruka hadn't seen the kite since he'd come back from the hospital, although there were times he could swear he felt it looking at him, or could hear its call from far away. He wasn't surprised it had kept out of sight, though.

Just like he wasn't surprised when it reappeared above him as he approached the wayside shrine.

He put his pack down and tried to walk up to the main complex, but as before, he kept getting led around in circles. After a couple of attempts, he gave up and began to set up his camp.

The kite swooped lower.

"I've been excused from teaching for a few weeks," Iruka said, sorting the parts of his tent. "My hand still isn't up to fine motor movement, but it should be okay by next semester, Tsunade-sensei says."

He imagined he could feel the breeze from the kite's powerful wings waft across the back of his neck.

"It's colder here in the mountains, even in late summer like this," he continued, tying ropes to the corners of the nylon shell with some difficulty. "I won't be able to make the hike once fall sets in and it gets really cold at night. I think we need to get this resolved before then."

The kite settled into a tree.

Iruka tugged at a tent rope, pulling the frame into place. He tied off the rope and stood to face the kite. "This is ridiculous, you know. I wouldn't need to do this if you'd just let me in, and you wouldn't need to be out here eating raw mice just to keep me company."

The kite glared.

Iruka ignored the glare. "I'm not leaving this time, not until we've talked this through. Oh, and by the way, right now you've got the shrine's water supply hidden along with the rest of it. Could you maybe let me at least have access to that?"

The kite fluffed its plumage, then coasted to a tree deeper into the forest. Iruka followed and found a small spring a few feet away. "Thank you." He filled a couple of collapsible containers. "How about the bathroom and onsen?"

The bird flew off.

Iruka sighed. "I didn't think so."

ovVvo

Night fell, and the forest rustled with the sounds of nocturnal creatures coming out of hiding. Iruka fervently hoped no wild boars were in the area.

He was considering how to rig up an alarm system around the site, just in case, when a dog trotted into the camp. It was the one he'd seen before, dressed in a blue bandana and a blue vest with a henohenomoheji on the back.

"Name's Pakkun," the dog said. "Any of that stew left?"

Iruka stared, eyes wide. "Um, sorry," he said after a moment, scratching the back of his head and smiling apologetically. "I've never spoken with a dog before. Please forgive my rudeness. And yes, I'll dish some out for you. Will a camp plate do?"

Pakkun grunted. "At least you remembered your manners. Most don't. Yeah, a camp plate's fine."

Iruka pulled the stew away from the fire and poured a generous helping on the plate. "It's hot."

Pakkun sat, waiting for his stew to cool. "The two of you are idiots, you know."

"Yes." Iruka sighed. "Does he hate me?"

"What will you do if I say 'yes'?"

Iruka looked into the fire. "Leave," he finally said.

"Then I should tell you yes." Pakkun muttered under his breath, but Iruka was pretty sure he caught the words, 'stubborn bastards'.

"But you didn't," Iruka pointed out.

"Bright one, aren't you?" Pakkun started eating his stew. "This is pretty good," he said, sounding disappointed.

"Thanks." Iruka sipped his tea while Pakkun ate. When he'd licked the plate clean, Iruka asked, "Why are you here?"

"Because you're too stupid to go home, and he's too stupid to let you in."

Iruka smiled. He had the distinct impression that Pakkun grumbled to hide the fact that he was devoted to Kakashi. "To protect me?"

"It's dangerous." Pakkun walked over to the tent and peered in. "Which side do you normally sleep on?"

"I sleep on my stomach."

"Doesn't let you get up very fast if we're attacked." Sighing, he went inside and Iruka could see him curling up at the end of the sleeping bag.

Iruka rinsed the teacup and plate and packed them away before putting them into his food cache and pulling on the rope until the cache was well above the reach of sharp teeth, hooves and claws. He crawled into the tent. "I don't think anyone can get up very fast when they're using a sleeping bag," he pointed out.

Pakkun grunted, his eyes heavy.

Iruka watched as Pakkun finally lost the battle against sleep and began to snore, and then smiled and closed his own eyes.

ovVvo

"Did you know you and your family are famous in the village below?" he asked the forest after breakfast. "No, really. I visited the community center before I hiked up, and I found this pamphlet about the legends of the mountain. It said that there's a white-haired god that lives up here, one that has the power of lightning in one hand and healing in the other. There's also supposed to be a hidden shrine that's only visible during the thirteenth full moon of the year. And apparently, the god is well-known to be lewd and eccentric. Sounds like they got some inside information, doesn't it?"

He paused, but there was no response. He hadn't seen the kite since it had disappeared the day before. He sat down on his camp chair, elbows on his knees, and rubbed his face.

"Okay, enough of the teasing," he said, dropping his hands but staying slumped. "I really want to apologize for being such an ass. Sandaime-sama always tells me that my short temper is one of my greatest weaknesses, and he's right. I'm always screwing up because of it. I screwed up royally with you." He looked towards where he knew the shrine complex to be. "I know it's unfair of me to ask, but could you give me another chance?"

Kakashi stepped out from behind a tree, and Iruka leapt to his feet. "Kakashi!"

"Go away."

Iruka stood his ground. "I'm not leaving you."

With inhuman speed, Kakashi was in his face, gripping Iruka's collar so hard that Iruka started to choke. Both eyes were open, the strange pupils in the left rotating so fast that it looked as though he had a target in the middle of his eye. "You keep forgetting I'm a killer," he whispered.

The deadly intent in Kakashi's voice made Iruka shiver, but he refused to be intimidated. "You're not just a killer," Iruka gasped.

"I could kill you right now."

"You won't."

"You'd be dead before you know it. Maybe you're already dead. Maybe I've already hit a vital spot with a needle, barely a prick, and you're bleeding out internally."

"I'm not, and you haven't," Iruka replied.

Kakashi pressed at a spot on Iruka's neck, and Iruka's sight dimmed like it had the last time. He could feel his heart pounding, but he couldn't get enough air. His eyes began to close, though he struggled to keep them open.

"That's how I kill children," Kakashi whispered. "Painless. Fast."

"You're not… going to… kill me."

Kakashi's finger eased. "All these hands know how to do is to kill. That's all I would ever teach your precious brother."

Iruka shook his head as best he could. "You're teaching him skills to survive."

"Don't you get it?" Kakashi snapped. "I'm dangerous!"

"I can be dangerous, too!" Iruka snapped back. "Anybody can! Yes, you have special talents and training to kill, but pulling a trigger can accomplish the same thing!"

"What if I like killing?"

"Do you?" Iruka stared into Kakashi's mis-matched eyes.

With a curse, Kakashi let him go and turned away. "No."

Iruka stumbled back a step, and rubbed his throat. "But you're good at it."

"The best." The self-loathing in Kakashi's voice made Iruka's heart ache. "I have a talent for killing. My father was renowned for it. It's what we are."

"Look," Iruka said, "I know you haven't asked for my opinion, but I'm giving it to you, anyway. You have a gift, Kakashi. A rare and amazing gift. It's not the talent that makes you a killer. It's the indoctrination of a system that isn't needed any more. You should be proud of your skills, not ashamed."

"As you pointed out, I'm not needed anymore," he replied.

"We're going to have to work on this communication thing." Iruka glared. "No, I didn't say you weren't needed anymore. I said that the system you grew up in isn't needed anymore. You're needed."

"What if I don't want to be?"

"Tough. You already are."

Kakashi turned back. His eyes looked dead.

"That's your problem."

He vanished.

ovVvo

Iruka felt uneasy after Kakashi disappeared, but no matter how hard he searched, he still couldn't find the shrine complex. He yelled for Kakashi to let him in until he was hoarse, but there was no reply.

The day seemed to reflect the oppressive atmosphere. Summer re-asserted itself with a vengeance, and even under the shade of the trees, Iruka stripped down to his jeans and pulled his hair into a high ponytail, seriously contemplating stripping down to his pants.

Still, the hair at the back of Iruka's neck prickled. He shivered, despite the heat.

By sunset, even the occasional breeze had died away. The forest was silent, and Iruka caught himself holding his breath and listening for something, anything, more than once. But even the insect sounds were missing.

Time dragged. He waited, sleepless.

Pakkun never came.

ovVvo

Iruka was abruptly awakened from a troubled doze an hour or so before dawn.

Pakkun tugged at his jeans. "Hurry!"

Shrugging on a shirt, Iruka ran after him. The path to the shrine appeared before him, and this time he ran past half-remembered landmarks, down the broad avenue leading to the shrine complex.

"This way!" Pakkun ran past the living quarters and headed directly to the haiden, Iruka close on his heels. They rounded the corner of the building, and Iruka gasped at what he saw.

Kakashi was standing naked in front of the main shrine, bathed in white light, chanting and rapidly moving his hands through a series of signs. A rope draped with paper glowed at his feet.

Realization hit Iruka. "No!"

The chanting faltered and Kakashi's hands wavered, but he recovered immediately and continued. Iruka could see the light grow brighter, and could feel the build-up of electricity in the air around him. He ran faster than he had ever run before, but it wasn't enough, he wasn't going to make it…

"Damn you!" he shouted. "Wait for me!"

And then he was there, and Kakashi's skin was cool under his hands, and the bright light pressed against him and stole his breath, and he pressed his cheek to Kakashi's chest and clung hard to him.

He wondered if being sealed would hurt.

The chanting stopped, the light so impossibly bright that Iruka could see it through eyelids screwed shut. Kakashi went still, though Iruka could feel him trembling.

Then the light imploded, and Iruka screamed.

ovVvo

Every muscle in his body ached.

Iruka rolled to his side, groaned, and then compounded his woes by vomiting his meager dinner on the ground in front of him. He pushed away from it.

Someone pulled his hair from his face. "Finished?"

He nodded and forced himself to sit up.

Kakashi was still naked, on one knee in front of him, his hand still outstretched to cup Iruka's cheek. "That's disgusting," he said. "Can you walk?"

Iruka nodded again and climbed to his feet, stumbling away from the smell of sickness, Kakashi's arm securely around his waist, supporting him.

"Is this some kind of alternate universe?" he asked.

Kakashi paused and started shaking. He dropped his arm and Iruka promptly sank to his knees, unable to stand and worried that Kakashi was suffering tremors in the aftermath of the sealing.

And then Kakashi burst out laughing.

He laughed until he fell to the ground next to Iruka, doubled-over, tears running down his face, and still the laughter didn't stop. Iruka's irritation grew until he finally growled and punched him.

"What's so damned funny?"

"Alternate univ—!" He was laughing so hard he couldn't finish.

Iruka swore and raised his fist to punch him again when his sleeve caught on something. He looked down to see Pakkun with his jaws firmly clamped into the cloth.

"Pakkun?"

Pakkun released him and sat. "He's laughing because the seal failed."

Iruka blinked and finally looked at his surroundings. The familiar buildings of the shrine complex surrounded him, dawn just beginning to limn the tiles and gilt. A tengu leered down at him from a waterspout.

"It didn't work?"

Kakashi wiped the tears from his face and flopped on his back, spread-eagled. He didn't stop grinning. "Yep. Utterly failed."

"Thank kami-sama," Iruka breathed. "I was afraid you knew what you were doing."

Kakashi burst into another round of laughter, though this one quickly subsided to chuckles.

"I did know what I was doing!"

"How?"

He tapped his left eyelid. "I remembered what Sarutobi did."

"But that was twenty years ago!"

"Not to me." He took a deep breath and let it out, his chuckles slowly fading. "Not that twenty years would matter one way or another."

"Then why-?"

"Because some idiot grabbed me before I could finish!"

Hope sprang up in Iruka's heart, and he quickly straddled Kakashi on his knees. "I would have gone, too."

Kakashi blew Iruka's hair out of his face, his expression a strange mixture of annoyance and affection. "I know."

"I love you."

"I know."

Iruka stared down at him. "Why?"

Kakashi looked away, although he remained sprawled under Iruka. "Because—" He turned back and met Iruka's eyes, all traces of laughter gone. "You're stronger than I am."

"Uh." Iruka frowned. "What?"

"I don't want to be a killer," Kakashi whispered. "But I'm not strong enough to change on my own."

"You can cut the melodrama. It's just me," Iruka said. "I shouldn't have to point out that you're not the same person your father was. You're strong enough. But if you want me, I'll be there to help."

"I want you," Kakashi said, smiling and touching Iruka's cheek.

"Then you have me." Iruka lowered himself to lie on top of Kakashi, and kissed him, desperate to claim both love and possession of this deadly, broken man.

The kisses rapidly escalated to arousal. Kakashi's hands fumbled at the fastenings to Iruka's jeans. Iruka stood and stripped as fast as he could before kneeling over Kakashi again.

The feel of Kakashi's erection pressed into the crease of his ass made him groan. "Let me ride you," he whispered.

Kakashi's eyes went black with arousal. Iruka smiled.

He spat into his hand and reached behind himself. Hoping the spit would be enough, he lowered himself onto Kakashi's cock.

Kakashi trembled underneath him. "Damn it!"

"Easy now." Iruka began to rock, experimenting with the angle of his hips. A spark deep inside signaled his success. "Yes," he hissed, and began moving in earnest.

Light grew slowly as they strained together, grinding into each other with gasps and soundless hums of approval. Iruka reached for his cock, but Kakashi pushed his hand away and grasped it, pumping him in a relentless, hard rhythm that Iruka matched with his hips.

He exploded, arcs of come glistening in stripes that landed high up Kakashi's chest. They looked like strings of pearls. Iruka bent forward to lick them, rocking his hips until he felt Kakashi stiffen in turn, and the warm flood of his release within him.

Iruka gave Kakashi a chaste kiss. "It's dawn," he whispered.

Kakashi shook his head. "No, it's not. It's you."

"Hmm?" Iruka looked down, and realized that the glow was radiating from both of them, the same warm, calm glow he'd seen the first time he'd met Kakashi. "I don't—"

"You do." Kakashi drew him down until his full weight rested on him. "I felt it inside the stone. I found you, even when you were buried, your chakra burned so bright."

Iruka searched Kakashi's face. "You're making that up."

"Am not. You've got a chunk of chakra in you."

"Huh," Iruka said, smiling. "Okay, if you say so, I guess I do."

A wicked look crossed Kakashi's face. "So, are you a tengu?"

Iruka nipped Kakashi's lower lip.

"You better believe it," he whispered, and kissed him.

fin